From Russia (and Ukraine) with love. How Sebastopol tuning opened the door to open blues tuning

BluesMuse 7. Sylvester Weaver and Sebastopol tuning

If you think blues is purely African American, think again. Influences on the genre come from many countries and many creeds. Take the first two blues guitar recordings ever made, for example,‘Guitar Blues’ and ‘Guitar Rag’. These instrumentals were recorded in New York in 1923 by a 26-year old African American from Kentucky called Sylvester Weaver. According to the former editor of America’s Guitar Player magazine, Jas Obrecht, Weaver’s bluesy Guitar Rag was played, “with gusto in Vastopol tuning”.

The term Vastopol tuning is said to have been coined in New Orleans after musicians there heard Russian sailors from the Black Sea port of Sebastopol playing guitars in open D tuning. ‘Sebastopol’, now in the Ukraine, was also the name of a popular nineteenth century guitar instrumental in open D which inspired the tuning's bastardised American name.

Sarah Martin and Sylvester Weaver.

As for Sylvester Weaver, he was discovered by blues diva Sarah Martin. As their record label, OKeh, put it in a press advertisement back in 1923: “Sara Martin discovered the clever idea of making recordings with a guitar accompaniment, and the first records of this kind put out have made remarkable impressions in all parts of the country. Sylvester Weaver plays his guitar in a highly original manner, which consists chiefly of sliding a knife up and down the strings while he picks with the other hand. His guitar solos, No. 8109, are having wide sales.”

Weaver recorded his solo tracks a month after accompanying Sarah Martin on ‘Longing for Daddy Blues’. Also recorded in New York, the record was a milestone in blues recording for other important reasons.

This was the first time any singer hadbeen backed solely by a guitarist; and also the first ever recording of an acoustic guitarist playing blues. Weaver’s solo tracks soon afterwardalso have the distinction of being the first unaccompanied recording by a black artist and the first to feature bottleneck guitar playing.

Have a listen now to Sylvester Weaver's Guitar Rag.